Edmund P. Lewis, Jr.

On March 12, during spring break, an important activist, Dr. Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, spoke at NCCU. Edelman’s honorarium — the fee she received for speaking — was paid for by students out of the Lyceum Series fees.

About 300 people showed up for her speech, but there were just eight students.

After all, it was spring break.

It was an excellent speech. Edelman talked about issues that the youth of today – tomorrow’s leaders — need to hear.

She talked about infant mortality rates, about how many young people live in poverty and about the racial disparity in educational attainment. While I was sitting there all I could think about was this: Why would N.C. Central pay for this speech with our fees and then schedule the speech during spring break?

My first impulse was to assume that the professors on the lyceum committee didn’t care that our funds were being used for a spring break event.

Or perhaps there were no students on the lyceum committee to set them straight.

But I was wrong on both accounts.

According to one faculty member on the committee there were students representatives on the committee — they just didn’t show up regularly at the meetings.

But the real problem was that the adminstration didn’t listen to the committee’s concerns.

The committee didn’t want the event to be held during spring break, or that if it had to be, that it not be paid for with student fees.

According to an e-mail sent to the administration and provided to the Echo by one member of the lyceum committee: “Lyceum committee members have asked about the rationale for bringing to campus a speaker during spring break. ... From our perspective the Lyecum Series committee does not find students’ lyecum fees to be the correct source for a spring break event.”

But the speech went ahead, paid for by students.